Monday, January 4, 2016

The Witchery Way

By Ryan Dube

The Skinwalker Ranch in Northeastern Utah, otherwise known as the Sherman Ranch, has a long history of paranormal phenomenon. This phenomenon received the most media attention after the December 2005 publication of Hunt for the Skinwalker, a detailed book about the ranch and the NIDS investigation, co-written by Dr. Colm Kelleher and George Knapp.

The Skinwalker and Other Dimensions

The purpose of this article is not meant to outline the activities at the ranch – the NIDS investigation and Knapp’s visit to the ranch was described in great detail in the Hunt for the Skinwalker. The purpose of this article is to compare many of the phenomenon observed by the researchers at the ranch, with the long and fascinating Native American history of the area. The parallels that are uncovered when the two are placed side by side are very interesting, as well as somewhat disconcerting.

To place the phenomenon into a historical context, it’s important to explore the history of North-eastern Utah - in particular the history of the land before Europeans ever arrived and during their arrival. Many people recognize the significance that most of the UFO “hotspots” which are located from Utah down through Arizona and New Mexico, are also located near military installations. But another significant correlation is the fact that many of these hotspots are located bordering or at least neighboring Native American reservations. Many people do not realize that the area of the country where most of the intense number of sightings and phenomenon occur - New Mexico, Arizona and Utah – is also the location of a country within a country – the great Navajo Nation.

From a christian missionary:http://www.instchristiangrowth.org/Art%2010%20Navajo%20Nation.htmTHE NAVAJO NATION -- A third world countrySeptember 2002I had not realized that there is a third world country in the USA, but there is. It is the Navajo Nation. This country is a huge area in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah that is mostly desert and mountains. I recently spent nine days in the area doing a pastors’ conference, preaching and lecturing. The country is awe inspiring for the stark beauty of the landscape.

Not only is the land beautiful – but it is rich in Native American history, culture, as well as an entire host of strange phenomenon, including UFO’s.

A Wicked PastAnyone familiar with the infiltration of this area of the country by white settlers will recall the horrors, the slaughter, and the unimaginable actions by both the United States military and the Natives of the area. The tribal history of Utah in particular, including the Ute Tribe, who’s ancestors occupied the area for over a thousand years, includes a great deal of tragedy and horror. It is important to make note of the fact that the Utes allied with the United States army in attacks against the Navajo people. The mid 1800’s saw some of the worst atrocities by the United States Army against the Navajo people of this region. In 1863, part of the Canyon Chelly Campaign included Kit Carson and General James Charlatan attempting to starve the Navajo by placing a bounty on Navajo livestock.

This is an important footnote for our following observations – that this was an important target of the whites to obtain submission from the Navajo – the reduction of Navajo livestock. Livestock are often a target of the strange phenomenon – such as the cattle mutilations, for example.

After numerous military campaigns, the conflicts with their Utes neighbors, and pressure from New Mexican allies – the resulting starvation of the Navajo, followed by the use of bribery, resulted in a massive Navajo surrender:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_peopleFew Navajo surrendered and with a scorched earth policy, he [Colonel Kit Carson] and his men scouted throughout Navajoland, chasing, killing, capturing some Navajo, confiscating and burning crops, and offering food, clothing and shelter to those who surrendered. Some Navajo were permitted to keep their flocks and drive them to Ft. Stanton, aka Bosque Redondo. The troops were aided by other Native American tribes with long-standing memory and enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes.

This massive Navajo surrender resulted in an 8,000 Navajo march, called the “Long Walk”, before being incarcerated at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

In the spring of 1864, over 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march over 300 miles toFort Sumner, New Mexico. Approximately 200 Navajo died during the two month long march, known as theLong Walk of the Navajo.

This is an important second item to note – that those who didn’t surrender escaped to the mountains,in particular Navajo Mountain and the Bears Ears. There they waited for the release of their relatives. It isn’t hard to imagine the anger and hatred that grew in the hearts of those who escaped the fate of the Long Walk toward the whites, and possibly toward the Ute as well. The tradition of the Navajo to maintain an oral history means that only the Navajo truly understand the magnitude of the effect this event had on the hearts and minds of the Navajo people. The generational memory of the Navajo run deep…we can be certain that any resentment from this event has been handed down from generation to generation.

What weapons are described in Navajo history as a method to attack enemies? There are of course the physical weapons, but Navajo history carries a great spiritual component. One of the most relevant here, of course, is the Skinwalker.

http://www.geocities.com/asdzani/navajo/skinwalk.htmlSkinwalkers are another type of witch closely associated with underground gatherings. They are "wer-animals" and own an animal skin that is used to transform them into these animals. Any real animal can see through the skinwalker's disguise but even a human can recognize the unnatural creature. For some unexplainable reason even a well seasoned skinwalker cannot obtain the perfect animal gait or leave the proportionally correct sized animal tracks.

Navajo witchcraft is not at all the same as mainstream European witchcraft. There are many “ways” within the spirituality of the Navajo – this is but one. Navajo witchcraft deals with the dead, and with death.

Obviously, without eye-witness accounts, this could simply and easily be brushed off as nonsense. However, in the case of the Navajo Skinwalker – eye witness accounts are not hard to come by.

One example of an eye-witness account comes from James Donahue, a writer who lived with a practicing witch on a Navajo reservation. His account is as follows:

http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/id1888.htmlThen there was the appearance of the shape shifter. One windy afternoon, as the sands of the high desert were turning the sky yellow and partly obscuring the sunlight, we were at the house alone. The dogs in the yard began barking and carrying on. My wife looked out and announced that there was a wolf in the yard.

We both ran outside to look at the creature, only to find that it and the dogs had disappeared behind an old Hogan that was once used as the family home before the government built the conventional house we occupied. When we looked, we saw the large paw prints of the wolf, but there was something strange as well. The paw prints turned into human foot prints . . . small like the feet of a petite woman . . . before they disappeared at the wall of the Hogan.

It was clear that the wolf my wife had seen turned into a human after she was out of our sight. Then, miraculously, this person walked through a wall of a locked building. Since we did not have a key, there was no way to enter the old Hogan to expose her in her hiding place.

He concludes his article as follows:

My wife and I are living testimony to the uncanny ability of the Navajo to accomplish this amazing feat. They did it right before our eyes. It was only one of many amazing wonders observed during that magical time we lived in Arizona.

Here are some words from other witnesses of these kinds of phenomenon:

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2002/msg06740.htm> A note just received from my oldest son recalls that summer night in July,> 1980 that we were visited -- and were quite prepared to exercise our very> much Navajo-approved self-defense rights. He writes: "I remember that night> . . .I have a hard time explaining skinwalkers etc to anyone who hasn't been> in that setting, period. " [John Salter III]>> Navajo witchery is the essence of predatory criminality. No law enforcement> agency of any kind intrudes into the matter of traditional Navajo> self-defense when this extremely ancient and malignant evil threatens one's> very health and life.

Ancient Rituals with Other DimensionsMost anthropologists believe that most Native American tribes of this region are descendants of the Anasazi, also named “Ancient Ones”. There is also a long and mysterious history concerning the Anasazi, and their sudden decline, much like the Mayans. Another point of controversy is the possibility that there may have been incidents of cannibalism amongst the Anasazi. However, for the purpose of this article, I would like to focus on some of the ancient spiritual practices and beliefs of the Anasazi, which will prove relevant in our analysis below of the events at the Skinwalker Ranch. The first and most important practice involves the Sipapu.

http://media.graniteschools.org/Curriculum/anasazi/ana_sym.htmPetroglyphs known as the Mother Earth symbol have been found near the Hopi villages of Oraibi, Shipaulovi, and Walpi. These petroglyphs explain one of many of the Anasazi myths which have been passed down from one generation to another. This myth is known as the "Emergence Myth." It symbolizes the Spirits, orKachinas, emerging to this world through a small hole in the ground known as the sipapu. The actual sipapu is in a sacred place near the Little Colorado River close to the Grand Canyon.

The following description of an educational New Mexico tour, shows one example of the mysteries surrounding the multi-dimensional beliefs of these ancient people:

Unexplainable Phenomenon...Back at the RanchKeeping in mind the ancient history of this region, and the deep and mysterious spiritual past that includes a belief, and some believe interaction with, interdimensional beings - we will now move forward to examine the phenomenon at the ranch from this unique perspective.

The following quotes are from “Path of the Skinwalker” by George Knapp:

“Some very strange things have happened at the precise spot where I'm sitting. It is here that a visitor was accosted by a roaring but nearly invisible creature, something akin to the Predator of movie fame. It is here that a Ph.D. physicist reported that his mind was invaded, literally taken over, by some sort of hostile intelligence that warned him that he was not welcome. It is here that an entire team of researchers watched in awe as a bright door or portal opened up in the darkness and a large humanoid creature crawled out before quickly vanishing. And it is here that several animals--cattle and dogs--were mutilated, obliterated or simply disappeared.”

From the perspective of these scientists, who struggle honorably to keep an open mind when confronted by phenomenon that is difficult to explain with our limited human senses – these events are odd, unexplainable, and even at times frightening. But from our careful, historical vantage point, we will try to compare the phenomenon with the ancient spiritual activities that took place in this corner of the world long ago.

Knapp himself, understood the rich cultural past of the region, and makes note of it here:

“But run-of-the-mill UFO events don't begin to describe the rich array of unusual phenomena in this area. The Ute Indian tribe has been here far longer than white settlers. Tribal leaders are reluctant to speak to outsiders, but their oral history is replete with examples of strange creatures and sightings. Indian lore refers to some of these beings as Skinwalkers. Other cultures call them shape-shifters, werewolves or Bigfoot.”

An important clue here, is the response given to Knapp by a local – who understood the local Ute beliefs better than just about anyone but the Ute themselves:

"The Utes take this very seriously," Hicks says. "They think the Skinwalkers are powerful spirits that are here because of a curse that was put on them generations ago by the Navajos. And the center of the whole legend is this ranch. The Utes say the ranch is `the path of the Skinwalker.' Tribe members are strictly forbidden from setting foot on the property. It's been that way for a long time."

Recall – the Ute tribe, during the time before the Navajo Long Walk, had joined forces with the U.S. in order to drive out the Navajo. We can be quite certain that the legend, as described by the Utes concerning the ranch (the center of the whole legend), is very likely based in truth. When viewed in light of this information, the phenomenon begins to form a somewhat understandable set of experiences which match the kind of events one might expect if confronted by powerful Navajo “witchcraft” – utilizing a reality-bending, multi-dimensional magic that goes back to the days of the Ancient Anasazi.

One example – the Skinwalker sightings:

The bulletproof wolfOn the day the Gormans moved their furnishings onto the property, they had their first foreshadowing of the events that would follow. They spotted an extremely large wolf out in the pasture. The wolf cautiously made its way across the field, and, to the surprise of everyone, sidled up to the family, acting like it was a familiar pet. It had rained that day, and the family remembers the wolf smelled like a wet dog as they were petting it. After a few minutes, the wolf strolled over to the corral and grabbed a calf by its snout, attempting to pull it through the corral bars. Gorman and his father began beating on the wolf's back with sticks but it wouldn't release the calf.

Gorman grabbed a .357 Magnum from his truck and shot the wolf at point-blank range. The slug had no noticeable effect. Gorman pumped another bullet into the wolf, which then let go of the calf but stood looking at the family as if nothing had happened. Gorman shot it two more times with the powerful handgun. The big animal backed off a bit, but showed no signs of distress, not even any blood.

The mystified rancher retrieved a hunting rifle and shot the wolf again, once more at close range. Gorman is not only an experienced marksman but a big-game hunter of considerable repute. Five slugs should have been enough to bring down an elk, let alone a wolf. The fifth shot caused a chunk of hair and flesh to fly off the wolf, but it still didn't seem fazed. After a sixth shot, the wolf casually trotted across the field into a muddy thicket. Gorman and his father tracked the beast for about a mile, following its paw prints through the mud, but the tracks suddenly ended, as if the wolf had simply vanished into thin air.

Returning to the corral area, Gorman examined the chunk of wolf flesh and says it looked and smelled like rotten meat. He made inquiries among his neighbors, but no one seemed to know anything about any tame, over-sized wolves in the area.

In light of what we know about the Navajo Skinwalker, the fact that the practice includes a sort of “molting” into the skin of a dead animal – the smell of rotten meat appears to make some sense. This witness account also matches many other witness accounts of Skinwalker sightings – strange misshapen, odd wolf-like creatures.

Mrs. Gorman’s account of seeing two at once is given below. Keep in mind, that according to legend, the appearance of the shapeshifter depends on the appearance of the human “witch” who forms the beast – some are not quite as good at it as others, so they appear more misshapen and odd – with characteristics that might match those of the human, representing poor camouflage...such as in this example, the “curly red hair”:

A few weeks later, Mrs. Gorman encountered a wolf that was so large, its back was parallel with the top of her window as it stood beside her car. The wolf was accompanied by a dog-like animal that she couldn't identify.

Over the next two years, a menagerie of weird animals was reported by family members and neighbors. While driving into the ranch on a bright afternoon, Gorman and his wife saw something attacking one of their horses. They described it as "low to the ground, heavily muscled, weighing perhaps 200 pounds, with curly red hair and a bushy tail." It somewhat resembled a muscular hyena and seemed to be clawing at their horse, almost playing with it.

Gorman got within 40 feet of the animal but says it literally vanished before his eyes. Poof. Gone. They checked the horse and found numerous claw marks on its legs. (A few months later, the wife of a deputy sheriff reported seeing a similar muscular, reddish beast running across the property.)

The multiple sightings of different animals of various descriptions would represent a large group of shape-shifters, with the common goal to remove the whites from this vicinity. All of them share that common goal – as well as a penchant for livestock. And yet another account from the ranch of another entity, however this one apparently much more powerful – appearing nearly invisible, and looking like something out of the movie Predator:

The visitor, along with Gorman and his son, say they saw a large blurry "something" moving through the trees. The visitor has been meditating when this thing showed up. It swiftly moved from the trees, across the pasture, covering 100 yards in seconds, and when it reached the man, it let out a ferocious roar, something akin to a large bear, a roar loud enough to be heard hundreds of yards away. But this was no bear. It was, according to the Gormans, nearly invisible, resembling the camouflaged being in the movie Predator. The visitor was so scared, he grabbed on to Gorman and wouldn't let go. He left the ranch and has never returned.

They often were overwhelmed by strong musk odors. The pastures would unexplainably light up at night like a football stadium. They claim to have seen shafts of light that seemingly emanated from the ground, They (and others) say they heard what sounded like heavy machinery operating under the earth. And they heard voices. Tom, his son and his nephew remember hearing a loud, disembodied conversation in some unintelligible language. The disembodied male voices spoke in what the witnesses say was a mocking tone and sounded like they were emanating from 20 or more feet above their heads, but they saw nothing. The dogs accompanying the three witnesses growled and barked at the voices, then took off in a panic.

And here is one of the most impressive accounts of a malformed Skinwalker sighting:

Of all the strange incidents at the ranch, this one may take the prize. It occurred on the night of March 12, 1997. Barking dogs alerted the team to something lurking in a tree near the ranch house. Tom Gorman grabbed a hunting rifle and took off in his truck toward the tree. Two NIDS staffers followed in another vehicle. Up in the tree branches, they could make out a huge set of yellowish, reptilian eyes. The head of this animal had to be three feet wide, they guessed. At the bottom of the tree was something else. Gorman described it as huge and hairy, with massively muscled front legs and a doglike head.

Gorman, who is a crack shot, fired at both figures from a distance of 40 yards. The creature on the ground seemed to vanish. The thing in the tree apparently fell to the ground because Gorman heard it as it landed heavily in the patches of snow below. All three men ran through the pasture and scrub brush, chasing what they thought was a wounded animal, but they never found the animal and saw no blood either. A professional tracker was brought in the next day to scour the area. Nothing. But there was a physical clue left behind. At the bottom of the tree, they found and photographed a weird footprint, or rather, claw print. The print left in the snow was from something large. It had three digits with what they guessed were sharp claws on the end. Later analysis and comparison of the print led them to find a chilling similarity—the print from the ranch closely resembled that of a velociraptor, an extinct dinosaur made famous in the Jurassic Park films. (For the record, no one at NIDS is saying he shot a velociraptor. They don't know what it was.)

While this phenomenon appears to represent some very powerful dark magic – it is apparently not perfect. These creatures can be recognized from their gait or appearance. However, defense against them is unknown. Quite possibly, the Navajo themselves may hold the answer to that question, although they may not necessarily be interested in sharing it with those who persist in maintaining a presence at the ranch.

The Sipapu – The “Sacred Circles”Even more impressive a parallel than the shape-shifter eye witness reports – there is another powerful parallel between the phenomenon identified at the ranch, and ancient Anasazi rituals. These are the perfect circular “cookie-cutter” holes in the ground.

http://sipapu.ucsb.edu/html/faq.html#1What is a "Sipapu"?Pueblo histories and religion recognize two kinds of sipapus: The first is the original sipapu, through which First People entered the current world from the Third or Lower World (with the flute-playing Locust leading the way). Different Pueblo groups have different views as to where the original sipapu is located. Pueblos believe that the dead pass into the spirit world through the sipapu. Once upon a time, the dead would have been able to reemerge after a few days and their bodies revived, but Pueblo history says that Coyote covered the sipapu with a stone, and now only spirits, such as the kachinas, can pass through sipapus.

The second kind of sipapu is a current passage to the Third World, which can be found as small holes or even more elaborate structures in kivas. Special bodies of water or even special places in the landscape are also often considered to be sipapus. These sipapus are the means of communication with the spirits.

A sipapu was often simply a small perfect circular hole in the ground. (Like a “cookie-cutter” hole.

The image to the left is an example of one of these more elaborate ones built inside a Kiva. Less elaborate ones were simply small holes in the ground.

Compared to the descriptions of the “cookie-cutter” holes identified at the ranch, the resemblance is striking and remarkable.

While checking on his herd in the third homestead, Gorman noticed that someone had dug up his pasture. Hundreds of pounds of soil had been scooped out of the ground.

The edges of the hole resembled perfect, concentric circles, as if someone had dropped a gigantic cookie cutter on the pasture. Several smaller scoop marks were also found.

We see, a the ranch, this particular phenomenon effects both the land and the water. Again, since the relevance is important, I will restate here the significance of this, related to the Sipapu and what it represents to the Navajo:

“The second kind of sipapu is a current passage to the Third World, which can be found as small holes or even more elaborate structures in kivas. Special bodies of water or even special places in the landscape are also often considered to be sipapus. These sipapus are the means of communication with the spirits.”

A similar circular impression was noticed carved out of the ice near the ranch:

As he walked past a watering hole, he noticed an odd circular impression in the thin ice that had formed overnight. Something had carved a perfect circle in the ice. The circle was just under six feet in diameter and seemed oddly reminiscent of the crop formations seen in English wheat fields. The cuts extended only a quarter-inch into the ice and the ice itself was perhaps another quarter-inch thick. The question arises, how could this have been done? Someone standing on the muddy bank would have left footprints. The only prints were cattle tracks. The ice itself was so thin that it could support almost no weight and certainly would have cracked and broken if someone stood on it. Could someone have suspended themselves above the ice patch and then somehow carved a perfect circle? How, and more importantly, why? NIDS staffers, following the scientific method, collected and analyzed ice shavings from the spot, took readings for magnetic fields and EM radiation, checked for tracks throughout the area but found no clues. There is no natural explanation for such a subtle event, and it has never been reported again.

Lightning – and the OrbsAnother phenomenon described in Navajo witchcraft is the use of “lightning” as a weapon.

http://navajocentral.org/faq02c.htm152. What significance is lightning to Navajo people? Lightning is a tool of the Holy Ones. As there are often many paths from one town to another, there are also many different ways to accomplish the same thing in Navajo culture, - although they may be of diversely different nature. Two of the best known paths are the Beauty Way and the Evil Way. Lightning has different roles in each. In the Beauty Way, lightning offers similar protection as the Rainbow. In the Evil Way, it is a dangerous weapon that can be used against one. In a way, it is just like modern medicine and the atom and x-rays.

“Lightning” as a weapon, on the ranch:

By far the most common objects they witnessed were floating spheres of different sizes and colors. In 1995 and 1996, the Gormans and others reported 12 separate incidents of seeing large orange circles flying over the trees of the center homestead. Tom Gorman claims that holes occasionally opened up in the orange spheres and other smaller spheres would fly out. (A neighboring rancher told this reporter of his own encounters with what he called a flying orange basketball.)

By early 1996, the sightings of blue spheres at the ranch became almost commonplace. These orbs were said to be about the size of a softball, made of glass and filled with bubbling blue liquids that seemed to rotate inside. Mr. and Mrs. Gorman say that in April 1996, they watched one of the blue orbs repeatedly circle the head of one of their horses, The horse was illuminated by an intense blue light, and there was a sound like static electricity in the air, but this wasn't ball lightning. The orb seemed to be intelligently controlled. When Gorman approached the horse with a flashlight, the orb darted off, manoeuvring through tree branches with speed and dexterity.

In Navajo practice, there is another form of magic called the “Frenzy Way” – which can effect emotions upon any subject:

The Gormans say the blue spheres seemed to generate severe psychological effects on the family. Family members felt waves of fear roll over them, far in excess of what might be normal, whenever the blue orbs appeared. It was the appearance of one blue orb in particular that finally convinced the Gormans to sell the ranch. One evening in May 1996, Gorman was outside with three of his dogs when he noticed a blue orb darting around in the field near the ranch house. Gorman urged his dogs to go after the ball. The dogs chased and snapped at the orb, but it dodged and manoeuvred enough to stay just beyond the reach of their snapping jaws. The ball led the dogs out across the pasture and into the thick brush that borders the field. Gorman says he heard the dogs make three terrible yelps, then they were silent. He called for them, but they didn't respond.

The next morning, Gorman went to look for the dogs. What he found were three round spots of dried and brittle vegetation. In the middle of each circle was a black, greasy lump. Gorman surmised that his dogs had been incinerated by something. One thing for sure, the dogs were never seen again. The disappearance of their dogs prompted the Gormans to think about getting out.

When Dimensional Barriers are TornThe purpose of this article is only to draw parallels between the phenomenon that was described with such detail in George Knapp and Colm Kelleher’s book, “Path of the Skinwalker”....and the spiritual practices of the ancient Natives of this region. The parallels are many, and in some cases are disturbingly identical. Witness accounts of “Skinwalker witches” are eerily identical to accounts of “wolf” sightings at the ranch. The same can be said of the other phenomenon – the balls of light, the psychological effects, and the cookie-cutter holes which represented, to the ancient Anasazi, a doorway to and from the spirit world.

If we accept that these witness accounts are true and accurate, then we must accept that the phenomenon is real, and does take place. And to understand the cause, we must understand what makes up the fabric of what we call the reality around us.

In a rare interview – Jacques Vallee, famous and respected within the scientific circles of UFOlogy, offers his own compelling analysis about where these phenomenon come from.

Vallee thinks UFOs are likely "windows" to other dimensions manipulated by intelligent, often mischievous, always enigmatic beings we have yet to understand. (60 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time covers Vallee's theories in detail.)

The Anasazi, the Ancient Ones, understood – and quite possibly learned and utilized the triggers which served to initiate the manipulation of these “windows”.

This intelligent and mischievous being was understood by the Ancient Navajo. From Navajo Mythology:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_mythologyÁłtsé hashké (First Scolder) or Mą'ii (Roamer) or (Coyote)- Generally regarded as the trickster, but who hangs around First Man and First Woman and through his foolish actions reveals the limitations of the spiritual and material realities and the consequences of transgressing them. He is the unwitting agent of First Man's and First Woman's creation designs and yet coyote is considered as a very dangerous entity because of his irresponsible and foolish application of his acquired and limited knowledge of the dual creative and destructive powers of creation, for his own personal egotistical gain. The consequences of his lack of foresight in the wielding these powers also applies to actions started at the material level of creation. Considered a Díyín diné’é.

Vallee begins to describe the source of this phenomenon, in the same interview as above.

"The UFO phenomenon exists. It has been with us throughout history. It is physical in nature and it remains unexplained in terms of contemporary science. It represents a level of consciousness that we have not yet recognized, and which is able to manipulate dimensions beyond time and space as we understand them. It affects our own consciousness in ways that we do not grasp fully, and it generally behaves as a control system."

[snip...]

But Vallee also has controversial ideas about human-made UFO conspiracies. "I was investigating some cases that were physically real," he says, "but they were hoaxes--yet not hoaxes on the part of the witnesses."

In the case of the abductions I think we're dealing with the information aspect. I came to that conclusion because abduction cases, in close encounter cases in general, what the witness is saying is absurd.

Clark: What do you mean?

Vallee: I don't mean simply to imply that the account is silly. I mean it has absurdity as a semantic construction. If you're trying to express something which is beyond the comprehension of a subject, you have to do it through statements that appear contradictory or seem absurd. For example, in Zen Buddhism the seeker must deal with such concepts as "the sound of one hand clapping" - an apparently preposterous notion which is designed to break down ordinary ways of thinking. The occurrences of similar "absurd" messages in UFO cases brought me to the idea that maybe we're dealing with a sort of control system that is subtly manipulating human consciousness.

Vallee’s analysis outlines one motive behind the phenomenon being a method of manipulating human consciousness. Combining the hypothesis that these windows are created – windows such as today UFO’s...or long ago entities such as Fairies, with the Ancient mythology of the Navajo Mą'ii (Coyote), the trickster, a picture starts to form of a malevolent force which, in some locations, is better able to pass through dimensional wormholes and enter our plane of reality at will.

The Ancient Anasazi, in practicing their spiritual rituals, and in the spiritual practices of their descendants, may very well have weakened the fabric of space and time between the spiritual worlds. The infiltration of the white colonists, and the resulting horrors, retaliation and bloodshed, might likely have combined with this effect, so that now – in this region rich in paranormal phenomenon – the spiritual forces have almost free reign, quite possibly with continued spiritual encouragement by native human descendants.

Coyote – the trickster, continues with his foolish actions, and reveals to us the consequences of transgressing spiritual and material realities. Coyote is not fully at fault, for these actions were started at the material level of creation. The result, in this odd corner of our country, as well as many locations throughout the country and the world, may be a product of continued transgressions between spiritual and material realities.

If we are to understand why such odd phenomenon takes place as UFO’s, abductions, and the like, we need to follow an approach that draws no conclusions, but also does not fear the unknown. Jacques Vallee, describes it best:

Clark: Are you suggesting that the investigator should attempt to experience the phenomenon himself?

Vallee: Yes, I think that's sound scientific practice.

Clark: But isn't that rather dangerous - in the sense that there's a real risk the investigator, even if he is emotionally stable and intellectually sophisticated, might be overwhelmed by the experiences involved?

Vallee: Yes, there are dangers. Witness what happened to Morris Jessup or to Jim McDonald. But I think that now we're more aware of what the dangers are. Once you realize the phenomenon may be deliberately misleading, then you can use certain safeguards. I'm not saying that safeguards are always going to work. There is an element of danger you really can't avoid. There's no way to do that kind of study just by reading books.

It's a little bit like the study of volcanoes. You can learn a lot about them by watching them from a distance but you certainly learn a lot more when you can be right there - even if it's somewhat risky.

George Knapp took such a courageous risk. We can only hope that more scientists and other respected professionals, might display the same sort of courage – and step forward publicly to help to shed scientific light on the odd world of ufology and the paranormal. With serious research by competent and respected researchers, without ridicule and without shame, the answers to these questions can be found.